Museum

Leah Triplett giving a tour of Villalongo to a group of people
Special Tours

LAST Curator-Led Tour of William Villalongo: Myths and Migrations

wawa FREE day
Free & Reduced Admission Days

Wawa Welcome America’s Free Museum Day at PAFA

Acrylic painting by Amy Lincoln featuring stylized sun rays in yellow, violet, and black, radiating in a symmetrical pattern.

New Horizons: Recent Contemporary Acquisitions

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Frances M. Maguire Gallery
Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building
John Middleton standing inside the Philadelphia Museum of Art beside Thomas Cole's 1840 painting Schroon Lake, a work on loan from the Middleton Family Collection.

The Philadelphia Inquirer | John Middleton’s secret art collection is coming out of the shadows in a blockbuster two-museum show

“In Philadelphia, John Middleton is known as the baseball guy with some very baseball ambitions. The managing partner of the Phillies has boldly declared his intention to make the team one of the winningest ever.

In another realm, though, Middleton has already achieved a distinction — as one of the…

In the News
People standing in an art gallery talking.
Free & Reduced Admission Days

Pay-What-You-Wish Day at PAFA Museum

Family Art Day
Family Art Day

Family Art Day

family art day
Family Art Day

Family Art Day

HLB
Special Tours

PAFA Outside/Inside Tour: Uncover the Art & Architecture of America's First Art School and Museum

A textured mixed media artwork by William Villalongo depicting a silhouetted Black figure surrounded by intricate cutouts and symbolic elements in acrylic, velvet flocking, and paper on wood panel.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) Presents William Villalongo: Myths and Migrations

William Villalongo: Myths and Migrations is on view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) from May 15 to August 31, 2025. This mid-career survey highlights over 20 years of Villalongo’s work exploring themes of Black presence, identity, and cultural memory through richly layered…
Press Release
A mixed-media sculpture measuring 96 by 24 by 24 inches, featuring velvet flocking, gold chains, drinking gourds, Sicilian Testa di Moro heads, artificial basil, and natural elements like obsidian, quartz, hematite, seashells, starfish, and coral arranged in a vertical, totemic composition.
William Villalongo: Myths and Migrations

F L O C K

View of ALOFT bar
PAFA Friends & Family Days

Happy Hour + 20% off Museum Store Gifts

View of ALOFT bar
PAFA Friends & Family Days

Happy Hour + 20% off Museum Store Gifts

Abstract landscape by Arthur Dove, ca. 1941–1946, featuring organic shapes and muted tones suggestive of nature.

“I look at nature, I see myself”: The Abstract Vision of Arthur Dove

Of all the American artists inspired by nature, perhaps Arthur Dove provides us with the most intimate, visceral and modern translation of the elements of the environment around him. While the world Dove inhabited early in his career was increasingly industrialized, Dove consistently turned toward…

Stories
William Villalongo, The Thirsty Laborer (If You Build It), 2012. Medium Acrylic, velvet flocking and paper on wood panel. Accession #2017.16. Photo credit: Susan Inglett Gallery. Copyright © William Villalongo. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Archives, Philadelphia. 
Exhibition Reception

Opening Reception | William Villalongo: Myths and Migrations

A group of people watching a bronze pour
Member Program
Sold Out

From Clay to Metal: Sculpture Talk & Bronze Pour

Mixed-media installation by David Lynch featuring six distorted heads and a looping projection of vomiting figures, evoking discomfort and repetition.

Six Men Getting Sick

Anne Bryan Gallery
Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building
YellowPlums

Brushstrokes of Belonging: How PAFA Nurtured Nancy Bea Miller’s Creative Path

Nancy Bea Miller (Cert '91, MFA '14)

Art has always been a part of Nancy Bea Miller’s life. Growing up in a home filled with creativity, she was surrounded by inspiration. Her father, an advertising art director, and her mother, a nurse who studied art at the Art Students League, bonded over their…

Stories
group of kids and adults at Family Art Day
Family Art Day
Canceled

Family Art Day

Artist William Villalongo in front of his mixed-media paintings "Zero Gravity 1" (top) and "Zero Gravity 2."

The Philadelphia Inquirer | African mythology and folklore collide in William Villalongo’s entrancing velvety portraits

"Much has been written about Henry Box Brown’s body. The 33-year-old enslaved man from Virginia was 5′10″ and around 200 pounds in the spring of 1849 when he forced himself into a wooden box not much bigger than an oven. It was addressed to the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia…

In the News
Streetcar Travel in Philadelphia in 1876, an oil painting by Edwin Haley (1876), depicts a bustling Philadelphia street scene with horse-drawn streetcars, pedestrians, and buildings lining the road.
Art At Noon
Online

Philadelphia History through Art – Part II

photo of a woman in front of foliage and stone structures

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Names Lea C. Stephenson as New Historical Curator

PHILADELPHIA (Feb. 4, 2025) – The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), the first museum and school of fine arts in the United States, today announced Lea C. Stephenson as the next Kenneth R. Woodcock Curator of Historical American Art, effective Feb. 10, 2025. In this role, Stephenson will…

Press Release
Lea in front of PAFA's Historic Landmark Building

The Philadelphia Inquirer | PAFA’s new curator, Lea C. Stephenson, comes with Philadelphia roots

"The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has named a new curator of historical American art. Lea C. Stephenson, a specialist in 18th and 19th century American art who was partially trained in Philadelphia, comes to PAFA’s museum...

Stephenson, who is finishing up her doctorate in art history at the…

In the News
Installation view of From the School Collection
Special Tours

From The School Collection

Installation view of From the School Collection
Special Tours

From The School Collection

 

We're so excited you're planning to visit PAFA! 

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